Last Modified: Sunday, January 27, 2013 at 9:03 p.m.

Advanced cardiovascular life support students from Daytona State College load a patient simulator mannequin onto a stretcher. In this scenario, the “patient” was hit by a car and had to be revived.

News-Journal/ANTHONY DEFEO

It could have been a scene in almost any hospital, except for one thing: This heart patient was a robot.

Healthcare educators and professionals from as far away as Japan visited Daytona State College on Sunday to tour the school's patient simulation laboratories and witness live demonstrations from some of its students.

The group of about 25 people from the Society for Simulation in Healthcare arrived on a bus from Orlando, where the 13th annual International Meeting on Simulation in Healthcare conference is being held through Wednesday.

"We're very happy to be welcoming a group of international educators and professionals from the area of healthcare to come look at our simulation areas," said Carol Eaton, president of Daytona State College.

Some of the professionals and educators came from around the United States, while others in the group were from around the world. The visitors were served breakfast and shown around three of the college's labs: one for its nursing program, one for its respiratory care program, and one for its advanced cardiovascular life support program.

They witnessed patient care demonstrations on the simulators in each of the programs.

Each year, the Society for Simulation in Healthcare arranges for its members to tour different facilities with simulators.

Kim Beechler, the patient simulation specialist for the DSC's nursing program, said it's an honor to be selected as a tour destination.

"When they visit a center, it means it's a premier center," she said. "A place that other people talk about when they speak about simulation."

The labs of its Health Sciences Hall are filled with about 10 different patient simulator mannequins. It would be wrong to call them dummies; on the contrary, these simulators are high-tech, lifelike pieces of machinery. Each is designed to give medical professionals-in-training the most realistic learning experience possible without actually involving live human beings.

"You wouldn't get on an airplane unless your pilot had some time in a flight simulator," said Beechler, explaining the important role they play in training medical practitioners.

One of DSC's most advanced simulators is the METIman. While it's unlikely anyone would mistake one for a real person, METIman breathes, blinks, has a pulse and a measurable blood pressure, and even talks. He reacts on his own to different steps a student takes, without being manually controlled. Instructors can either load preprogrammed scenarios for students to work through, or manually control their vital signs and reactions.

Students can actually place IV lines and inject medications into the mannequins. Each simulator has a circulatory system, tear ducts and even excretory systems. One simulator – a PediaSIM, made to simulate a female child — wet the bed during a demonstration.

The robots can cost anywhere from $42,000 up. But the cost is well worth it, given the educational benefits students glean from using them, according to James Greene, associate vice president of DSC's College of Health, Human and Public Services.

"I think it gives the student an opportunity to work with a simulator prior to going into the clinical areas," said Greene. "It's a good way to test their skills and their abilities before they actually go and work on live patients."

The simulators also allow students to practice treating ailments that, while vital to know about, might not be encountered too often in clinical practice. The students seemed to appreciate them, as well.

"I don't think it's as intimidating (as a real patient). You can't hurt them," said Tanya Wolfe, a nursing student. "(The instructors) can make it code, they can make it have different types of respiratory problems, they can make the heart rhythm go faster or slower.'

"The newer models are more realistic than some of the older models," said Michael Krayewsky, another nursing student. "The skin feels the same, the eyes move, they breathe and you can hear a lot of the sounds."

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